As if being the prime minister of Zimbabwe--a nation wracked by economic devastation, starvation, and political oppression for the past decade--was not a difficult enough job, Morgan Tsvangirai must also share power with President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai, who has led the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) since its inception in 1999, became prime minister in a power-sharing accord brokered with Mugabe in early February, almost a year after he and the MDC defeated Mugabe and his ZANU-PF in an election fraught with irregularities. He is now on a three-week tour of Western capitals, asking governments that once branded Zimbabwe a pariah state to funnel much-needed aid to his devastated country. Today, he meets with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
"We have not given up our fire for a democratic Zimbabwe, even when we share power with someone who we believe has never been democratic," Tsvangirai said firmly at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Wednesday. Tsvangirai's democratic credentials and his commitment to a free Zimbabwe are not in doubt. He has been imprisoned and beaten, tried for treason, and marked for death. In March, just weeks after the coalition government was formed, he buried his wife of 31 years after she died in a mysterious car crash that many suspect was the work of Mugabe's henchmen. The man deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
Read Full Article »